In this extraordinary collection of letters written especially for this volume, more than seventy-five distinguished daughters -- novelists, poets, essayists, cartoonists, journalists -- speak to their mothers, both living and deceased. From Joyce Carol Oates to Barbara Kingsolver, from Ntozake Shange to Hilma Wolitzer, these writers deliver messages straight from the heart.... Here are authors of different ages and cultures, many of them mothers and grandmothers themselves, each writing in her own distinctive voice, sharing her secret sorrows, joys, hurt, anger, and understanding. "What do I tell her? What do I not tell her? What do I wish I had said?" Their thoughtful, provocative, funny, and sometimes painful letters hold revelations -- memories and confessions, poems and tales -- at once personal and universal, touching and profound.